


Games Night

by espioc



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Board Games, Established Relationship, Fluff, Late Nights, M/M, light humor, sleep problems, starscream is a sore loser, wheeljack is a loving and supportive husband
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27132248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/espioc/pseuds/espioc
Summary: Starscream and Wheeljack sometimes have games nights. They usually server more than one purpose.
Relationships: Starscream/Wheeljack (Transformers)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 42





	Games Night

The clock was ticking away, down, down, down, until the very last second. 

Starscream moved one pawn forward and slapped the button. Wheeljack’s next move was immediate. He took the pawn with a rook and slapped the button. Starscream hunched forward and rubbed his chin, his wing twitching in time with the clicks of the clock. He lifted one brow, then switched which brow he was lifting. 

At the very last second he took Wheeljack’s rook and hit the button on the clock. Wheeljack took half a second to think, moved a new pawn two slots up and hit the clock. Starscream tapped his talons on the table. He narrowed his eyes at the board. Ten seconds before his two minutes ran out he moved his knight and hit the button. 

Wheeljack took ten seconds longer than usual. He moved a bishop and hit the clock. As soon as Wheeljack’s hand left the timer Starscream’s hand whipped to the board and took the bishop with his knight. When he hit the clock, Wheeljack took pause. 

He hummed, itching at his finial. By the time he moved his knight, the two minutes were almost up. Starscream swooped in and took the knight with his own knight. A smirk briefly snuck onto his face, but just as quickly disappeared. Wheeljack’s next move was quick and concise, taking Starscream’s bishop with a pawn. 

Starscream moved his knight. “Check.” 

Wheeljack’s finials blinked. “What? Where?”

Starscream pointed to his knight, one move away from the king. Wheeljack studied the board. He twisted his lip and flashed his finials, and after a few seconds took the knight with his queen. As soon as it was Starscream’s turn, he took Wheeljack’s queen. 

“Checkmate.”

Wheeljack leaned down and took a good look at the board. “Dah,” he sat up straight and flicked his king down. “You win. Again.”

Starscream smiled. “Maybe next time.” 

“Okay,” Wheeljack said. “My turn.” 

Starscream cleaned up the chess set while Wheeljack went over to the shelf below the TV and got out a different game. Starscream placed the chess set below his chair and folded his hands on the table, waiting patiently for Wheeljack to present the next challenge. 

Wheeljack retracted his mask for the sole purpose of showing off his own smirk. 

Starscream’s smirk disappeared. Wheeljack placed the game box down. 

Scrabble. 

Starscream’s wing twitched. He cleared his throat and laid his hands flat on the table. The very tips of his claws dug into the surface, adding to the divots already formed. 

Wheeljack smirked the entire time he was setting up the board. He calmly set Starscream’s piece holder in front of him, then sat down. Starscream narrowed his eyes, picking his letters out of the lid of the box. Wheeljack only glanced up occasionally, every time pulling his lips between his teeth and keeping the corners tight. 

“You can go first.” Wheeljack said. 

Starscream pursed his lip. He stared at the letters before him, and didn’t make a move for about three minutes. When he did move, he picked up one letter and immediately put it back down. He rubbed his chin and flicked his wing. 

“Okay,” he grumbled. He grabbed three letters and steadily placed down the word. ‘Get.’ 

Wheeljack nodded a steady nod. He hummed to himself for a few seconds before grabbing five of his letters and spelling out ‘target.’ Using Starscream’s ‘T’. 

Starscream frowned. He picked out new letters and leaned back, taking a good look at his options. He picked out four letters and spelled out ‘among,’ using Wheeljack’s ‘A’. As soon as the letters were placed Wheeljack moved in with ‘oxymoron,’ using Starscream’s ‘O,’ putting Wheeljack ahead by over 30 points, his ‘X’ landing on a triple point tile. 

Starscream frowned. He huffed in the back of his throat and took a deep vent as he gathered new tiles. He chewed his lip and furrowed his brow, scratching the back of his hand with his talons. Wheeljack reached across the table and took one of Starscream’s restless hands. Wheeljack rubbed his thumb gently over the irritated metal. 

Starscream’s wings perked. He removed his hand from Wheeljack’s so he could use both hands to put down letters. 

Starscream used Wheeljack’s ‘X,’ to spell out ‘xilan.’ 

Wheeljack tilted his head. “What is that?”

“It’s an organic word.”

“What does it mean.”

“I don’t know, but I know it’s a word.”

Wheeljack pursed his lip. “Xylan?”

“It’s something with plants.”

“I don’t think that’s how you spell that.”

Starscream grabbed the dictionary and did a brief flip through before putting it down. “It’s not in here.” So he took out his phone and looked it up. As soon as he saw how it was spelled, he frowned. He removed his letters from the board and placed them back in front of him. 

Only a few seconds later he placed his letters back on the board and spelled out ‘xenia.’

Wheeljack pointed at the word. “What’s that?”

“Another organic thing.”

Wheeljack checked the dictionary. Then his phone. He nodded. “Checks out.”

Starscream smiled. His talons briefly graced the back of his hand before he paused. He slid his hand across the table and waited for Wheeljack to take it. For a couple of turns they both played with one hand. Starscream briefly got the upperhand with ‘Zebra,’ but Wheeljack came right back with ‘alakazam.’ 

Starscream unsuccessfully tried to spell ‘because’ three times before giving up and instead putting down ‘forget.’ 

Wheeljack briefly released Starscream’s hand to place on the board, ‘quizzifications,’ using two blank tiles for the ‘Zs,’ with his ‘Q’ on a double letters spot and one of the ‘Z’s on a triple letter. 

For a long time Starscream just looked at the board. Wheeljack reached across the table and flicked his fingers until Starscream gave him his hand. Starscream frowned as he placed down the word ‘at,’ and ended his turn. 

Wheeljack won the game by a landslide. As soon as it was over Starscream picked up the board and dumped all of the pieces on the ground. 

“You’re a bad loser.” Wheeljack said. 

“Then we shouldn’t play Scrabble.”

Wheeljack stood up, gave the back of Starscream’s hand a kiss, then started to put Scrabble away. After a few seconds of watching, Starscream squatted down and started to help pick up the pieces. They both gathered a few handfuls and dumped them in the box. Starscream rushed to close the box and put it away. Wheeljack waited patiently at the table. 

Starscream returned with Othello. 

It took hardly fifteen minutes for Starscream to beat Wheeljack at this game. As soon as it was done, Wheeljack looked Starscream right in the eye, grabbed the board, and flipped it over. 

Starscream cracked a smile. “Sore loser.” 

Wheeljack shrugged. “What can I say?”

They cleaned up the game. Starscream sat down on the coffee table and watched Wheeljack fiddle with the other games to fit Othello and chess back in the cupboard. Starscream rubbed one of his sore eyes and tucked his free hand between his knees. 

Wheeljack closed up the cupboard and turned on his knees. He shuffled forward and placed his hands on Starscream’s thighs. 

“Tired yet?” Wheeljack asked. 

Starscream placed his hand in his lap and sighed. He shrugged, but didn’t say anything. 

Wheeljack absently rubbed one of Starscream’s thighs.

“We could go lay down,” Wheeljack suggested. “Maybe that would help.”

Starscream nodded. Wheeljack stood up, Starscream followed. They went to the bedroom together and laid down. Wheeljack pulled the blanket over them and waited for Starscream to move into a comfortable position. 

Starscream settled at Wheeljack’s side. There was very little touching at first. Starscream tucked his arms in and curled a couple inches away from his partner. Every few minutes Wheeljack would scoot a millimeter closer until Starscream reached out and closed the gap between them. 

“I don’t know if I can sleep.” Starscream muttered, pressing his face into Wheeljack’s shoulder. 

“That’s okay,” Wheeljack muttered. “I’ll be here either way.”


End file.
